a couple of critters and bOnes...

a leaf...dangling by a web strand :)

it's still been pretty chilly here in north florida.

tonight it's supposed to get down to 33° F.

right now it's a windy 51°! 

i can hear the wind whipping around outside.

dead branches falling.

a couple of days ago the sun was finally peeking through the dense clouds...

and i spotted some critters. yay!!

a couple of (anole) lizards on the side of the house.

i got pretty excited when i heard the distinct tapping away of a woodpecker.

he was at the very top of an old dead tree...and i couldn't get a very good shot.

but, hey!!  it was another critter coming out from hiding, braving the cooler temp's!

a Red-bellied woodpecker.

and here's a pretty cool little (garden) spider's web...iridescent with the sun hitting it just right!

sam & i still go for hikes across the street...into the wooded field.

and i still collect bones!!!

hog skull & jaw

assorted deer bones

NOW THIS is a first!!!

ALLIGATOR TAIL!

obviously someone must have poached a 'gator...cleaned it...and dumped what was left.

i would've liked to see the entire skeleton...but all there was, was the tail!

ok. that's it.

i'll sign off with a couple of pic's of our furry kids!

~ emo ~

~ otis ~

have a nice week!

stay cool & be safe.

laura

“Life is a journey. Time is a river. The door is ajar.”

~Jim Butcher, Dead Beat

friday's fringe 32 ~ dangling...to the moon

~dangling~

while walking through the woods out back

i spotted a couple of dangling leaves...

hanging by a thread...probably a spider-web-thread!

(although in this first picture it looks to be a little thick,
but maybe the entire web collapsed in on itself & became one long thread.)

spinning...twirling in the breeze,

i waited for the wind to settle down.

“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower”

~Albert Camus

~to the moon~

you know 

i 

love

the moon.

this was taken on 21st of november @ 8:46pm.

it STILL amazes me how my 'point & shoot' Canon PowerShot 

can get a picture of the MOON...with CRATERS!!

my dream camera is a Canon Rebel.

i'll keep on dreaming...they're expensive.

i'm not complaining, i LOVE my PowerShot...

but sometimes i wish to get MORE MACRO than i'm able!

HEY,

thanks for stopping by on

lk

pecking order & webs

have you noticed the pecking order in nature.

this example has to do with a few birds.

looking out the back door

i see buzzards

on the ground.

then 

i see a hawk (the Red-shouldered kind).

he swoops down and chases the buzzards away.

(i wasn't fast enough to get a picture of THAT, you'll have to take my word for it)

then,

enter the crows.

who proceed to 

chase away the hawk.

they take over the yard.

one crow calls from the treetop...that the coast is clear!

for the time being...the crows rule the yard.

until they get tired of it and move along.

then the whole routine repeats itself!

maybe one day i'll see them ALL together!

getting along. sharing. 

tolerating.

(nah. i doubt it.)

~O~

it's that time of year

when the Banana spider (Golden Orb)

weaves her web between the trees.

oh.

lovely.

nothing like wandering through the yard or woods,

and getting slapped in the face by a sticky web.

then frantically brushing at yourself,

hoping the spider didn't land on your back or in your hair.

another good reason to carry a big stick...

waving it in front of yourself as you head down your path.

ok.

i'll leave you with a moon shot!

that moon shot is courtesy of Bart Simpson.

this one's from me.

1 sept 2012       9:17pm

"Let your heart guide you.  It whispers, so listen carefully."  

~Littlefoot's mother, Land Before Time

stay cool. be safe.

laura

arachnids and dragons

today. sunday. the dark clouds were rolling in.

looking west, at the end of our drive...across to the field where
we pick the wild blackberries

i really needed a break from all this sitting at the computer...

and trying to catch up on blog reading.

i needed fresh air.

but the mosquitoes are still monsterous...and still have an appetite that is never satisfied.

i didn't care.  i needed out.

i had to hurry though because the sky was about to open up.

thunder was rolling in the distance.

sam told me about a spider he spotted earlier this morn...so i went to find it...

on the side of the house...a pretty good sized web!

here she is, up close.

Yellow Garden Orbweaver  (Argiope aurantia)

she's perfecting her zipper stitch.

on the other side of the house...was this dangling egg case.

i'm not sure which spider it belongs to.

and here's the really cool Green Lynx spider!

ok, i better hurry this up...power just blinked out...lost my internet...

up and running again.

and now for a few DRAGONflies!!

ONE of my FAVORITES...in the bug family.

“Even  when  muddy  your  wings  sparkle  bright  wonders  that  heal  broken  worlds.”  

~Aberjhani, The River of Winged Dreams

i think they knew the rain was not far off.

flying around...always coming back to rest in the same spot.

just like the mushrooms...we have a wide variety of these dragons!!

time to go run through the mud...and the rain.  :)

i leave you with this moon shot...

two days ago, the 27th of july at 9:44pm

“We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side.”     

~Khalil Gibran

stay cool. be safe.

laura

last night's movie. followed by a little nature.

ginger bloom

i'm pooped today.

last night we watched a movie, "Machine Gun Preacher".

true story.

about Sam Childers, a former drug dealer, bad-ass...biker...felon.

(to make a long story short...)

Childers 'found religion'...ends up going on a missionary trip to Uganda with his church,

to help build homes for refugees.

while there, he wants to go north, to Sudan.  into the war zone.

after witnessing the atrocities of the Lord's Resistance Army...

Childers makes it his personal life's  mission to work with The People's Liberation Army...

to save the children of South Sudan.
save them from starvation & disease.

to save them from the murder, torture, rape, mutilation by the LRA.

he fights back.  hard.

he tries to provide the children with a life...of hope.

he builds the Children's Village.  currently home to 200 orphans,
although they have housed 1000 kids over the last 13 years.
a church, school,  kitchen, playground  and soccer field.

watching this film was heartbreaking. emotional. shocking.

i couldn't get to sleep. not 'til 2:30 in the morn.
my mind was overloaded. 

i couldn't stop thinking...
of what goes on in this world.
what people DO to people.

it made me ache inside.

i had a post all planned for today...but this is not it.

it just seems...not fair...to them...to be taking pictures and smiling and joking.

am i being too sensitive?  yeah, maybe.  it's tough not to.

i try to imagine...

giving up all the comforts of home.

a daily shower.  tv.  a/c.  a filled fridge.  stocked pantry.  a bed.  clothes.  a washer/dryer. 

an oven.  a car.  left overs that get forgotten & moldy. 

i have a bank card.  a credit card.  a laptop.  electricity.  a home.

i don't really worry about a group of people storming in with guns
or setting our house on fire while we sleep.

it's hard to imagine living in their world.  the fear.  the terror.

children being kidnapped & forced to kill.
forced to witness their parents being murdered.  at any time.  any day.

damn.

the more i talk, the more depressed i get.

SO...

here's a few pictures...of the twelve i was planning on.

ON TO 

my world...

july 4th

dragonfly

a Crab spider doing some web repair

Red-shouldered Hawk, front yard. a little far away for my camera...so a little blurry.

of course...ANOTHER yard mushroom...a strange looking round one.

AND two little grasshoppers...on the Hibiscus...munching away.

be safe. stay cool.
laura

friday's fringe - 1 (the web)

every friday.  one picture.  no words.